An eloquent debut novel set amid two historical hotbeds of racial tension, moral hypocrisy, and shifting sexual convention

Miss Arabella Leeds, the high-spirited teenage daughter of a prominent New York family, and Aubrey 'Brie' Paxton, the 'high yellow' pampered house servant of wealthy French-American slave-holders, are destined to fall in love.

They are each bound for London, where their chance meeting will transform both of their lives. But before their paths can cross, they will experience high adventure, erotic awakening, and the discovery of long-buried family secrets amid the salacious underpinnings of corseted Victorian society. And as the Civil War drenches America in blood, it will be their passion, unstoppable and forbidden, that will challenge both Arabella and Brie to rethink what freedom means and what love costs . . . as their bond places them forever outside the mores and conventions of their time.